Words that Remade a Country
B2-Intermediate+BNC LevelsCEFR LevelsProtectedStep 4StoriesTimes August 10, 2019
ReadOasis Step 4 Smoke, fire, and the booms of big guns. The pounding feet of horses. The flashes of silver swords in the sun. Loud shots in the air. The buzz of bullets in the wind. The cries of men at war. Rivers of blood. The white cracking sounds... Read more
Youtube Video by Dan Ariely ReadOasis Step 3 When emotions take over, we become different people. In fact, we become so different that it’s hard for us to recognize ourselves and realize what we could be doing in this other state. So for example you could make all the... Read more
ReadOasis Step 2 (Part 1) One day Yukichi went to Yokohama for sight-seeing. At the time, the place was not much of a town. Foreigners had made a few temporary buildings there for living and selling their goods. Yukichi tried to speak with them, but to his distress and... Read more
ReadOasis Step 3 Winston is an editor. Every day he works with words. His hands are soft, and he is not strong. He does not do hard physical labor. But his job is challenging and even dangerous. He works for the government of Oceania. Every day, he rewrites history.... Read more
Gregor Mendel: Father of Genetics
B2-Intermediate+BNC LevelsCEFR LevelsCoursesInvention Step 3AListen!ProtectedSciencesStep 3Stories July 27, 2019 2
ReadOasis Step 3 A great tree comes from a small seed, and from small beginnings come great things. He made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science. But during his life, Gregor Mendel was a relatively unknown man. After his death, he became famous for his... Read more
ReadOasis Step 4 Confucius (551-478 BC) was a great Chinese philosopher and educator whose teachings formed the basis for Chinese education, ethics, and social life. His style was similar to Socrates. He tended not to give long explanations on different topics. Rather, he asked questions and challenged people to... Read more
ReadOasis Step 2 (Part 2) Yukichi thought, “It’s not very practical for me to travel from far away every day just to look up some words.” And so he gave up the school on the very first day. And after all that effort, he still had no English dictionary.... Read more
ReadOasis Step 2 (Part 3) As they studied, they realized that English was not so foreign after all. In the beginning, they were afraid that they had wasted great effort learning Dutch. But they were happily wrong. They could apply their knowledge of Dutch directly to learning English. And... Read more
ReadOasis Step 2 (Part 4) Fukuzawa said that civilization was the goal and purpose of humanity. People and nations build civilization through two basic processes. At the individual and social levels, people must cultivate virtue and refine knowledge. Fitting with this purpose, in 1858 Fukuzawa created perhaps his greatest... Read more